what a long, long day

I work the girls up at 6:45am so we could be up and downtown before their 1 mile race began and my 5K race started. It was very cold, especially with the wind coming off the water, but Maggie insisted on running in just a long sleeve shirt, no jacket. The chill must have made her run faster and she finished 5th with a time of 7:35. Her older sister crossed the finish line 15 seconds later. They then cheered me on as I claimed a personal adult best with a chip time of 22:54 (2nd place age group finish). (I got an email 2 days later that there was a chip error and I actually placed 1st) We stopped by the library before swinging by home to pick up the checkbook and measure our ceiling, and then picked out the first Christmas tree we saw at the lot. 

But everything hit the brakes when after putting the tree up, fighting the shopping hordes while going to the store for functioning lights, and decorating the entire thing, the tree fell over, breaking ornaments and spilling over a gallon of water on the carpet. Two hours later the tree is back up with the stand screws in much deeper and tied to the wall- that sucker is not going anywhere now. I still had to sew and glue costumes, but the children are finally all ready for the Christmas pagent tomorrow. Mary is Saint Adelaide, Maggie is Saint Margaret of Scotland, and the little boys are shepherds.

I'm about as tired as one can be while still able to stand so while the children and their father watch A Christmas Carol, I'm likely to read for about 3 minutes before crashing for the night.